Weevil
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Weevil. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a popular name for a large number of beetles, marked by the prolongation of the anterior part of the head into a beak or proboscis, generally used by the females as an ovipositor, and by both sexes as a boring organ. They were formerly ranked in one family Curculionidæ, but Le Conte constituted them a special group with the title rhynchophora, and divided them into several families-Curculionidæ, Scolytidæ, Brenthidæ, and Anthribidæ. According to some authorities there are about 30,000 species; and most would allow at least half that number. With few exceptions the footless grubs are destructive to plants. The Curculionidæ are compact weevils, with very hard wing covers, and with a downward-pointing beak or proboscis, bearing the antennæ on its sides and the mouth parts at its end. Their scales are With few excepoften very brilliant. tions they devour plants-roots, stems, leaves, fruits, seeds, or, in fact, any part. Large appropriations have been made in recent years to exterminate the boll weevil, which is especially destructive to the cotton plant. Its ravages have caused great losses to the cotton crop. Of the earliest standards of length the principal were the palm or handbreadth, the foot, and the cubit (from elbow to tip of mid-finger). There were two leading cubits: the natural cubit in Egypt, Chaldea, Phoenicia, and Greece 6 palms=2 spans 1½ foot= foot- 18.24 inches; and the royal cubit of Memphis, found also in Babylonia and Chaldea 20.89 inches. The Gree The Greek foot (=12.16 inches) passed into Italy and and was there divided into 12 unciæ (inches); it was afterward shortened, becoming as small as 11.65 inches. The Romans used a 3-foot ulna. The Saxons used an ell or yard of 36 inches, based on the Roman foot. This was continued by the Normans in England, various modifications occurring in the ell. Henry VII. and Elizabeth made standard yards of 36 inches: Henry's was 35.924 inches of the present standard; Elizabeth's was about 1-100 inch more than the present yard. In 1742 the Royal Society of Lonscale; in don made a standard 42-inch inch 1760 Mr. Bird made for a Weights and Measures Committee of the House of Commons a copy of an old yard measure found in the Tower. In 1824 (5 Geo. IV. chap. 74) this copy was legalized as the standard yard, with the direction that in the event of its being lost, the standard was to be recovered by making the length of a mean-time seconds pendulum in the latitude of London, in a vacuum at sea-level equal to 39.1393 inches. In 1834 the standard was destroyed in the fire at the Houses of Parliament. In 1838 a committee was appointed under Mr. Airy, astronomer royal; in 1841 they reported against the accuracy of the pendulum method; in 1843 they were appointed as a commission to restore the lost standards; this they did between 1843 and 1854 by taking the best secondary evidence, and they produced a standard bar of gun metal, the distance between two lines on which, crossing two gold studs, is one yard, at 62° F. and 30 inch bar. pressure. This was legalized as the standard by 18 and 19 Vict. chap. 72. The weights and Measures Act of 1878 (41 and 42 Vict. chap. 49) regulates the law, renders all old local or customary weights and measures, other than imperial ones, illegal, and enacts penalties on false and unverified weights and measures varying from $25 to $250. Two-thirds of a cubit, we have seen, made a "foot"; a "cubic foot" of water. weighed a talent. When the " foot " 2-3 the royal cubit, the talent was 566 grains; this was the Egyptian Hebrew, and Olympic monetary talent later known as the great Alexandrian talent of brass and the Egypto-Roman talent. A talent half this weight known as the Alexandrian talent silver, or 327,783 grains; this divided into 60 minas of 5,463 grains each; these are the origin of the Saxon moneyer's pound of 5,400 grains pound or Tower pound old apothecaries pound of Germany; one such pound, silver coins, was the original form " one & sterling, " and was divided 20 "shillings," or 240 "pence" or pennyweights; each pennyweight was divided into 32 monetary grains. ( wheat grains each equal to 0.703125 modern grain The Tower weight was abolished in The Saxon ounce contained 416.5 grains nearly, Roman uncia = 1-12 libra; libra (5,015 grains) was the Greek- Asiatic and Persian mina of grains. The Troy pound is 5,760 grains = 12 ounces of 20 pennyweights each Troy weight is now restricted to silver, and jewels, except diamonds The tables in the schedule hereto annexed and in all legal proceedings, as establishing, metric the United system States, the equivalents of the in customary, and the tables may lawfully weights and measures the weights The following are the tables annexed Metric Denominations and Values. Myriameter 10,000 meters. Kilometer 1,000 meters. Hectometer 100 meters. Dekameter 10 meters. Meter 1 meter. Decimeter 1-10 of a meter. Centimeter 1-100 of a meter. Millimeter 1-1000 of a meter. Metric Denominations and Values. Hectare 10,000 square meters Are 100 square meters. Centare 1 square meter. 1,550 en Metric Denominations and Values. Num- Names. ber of Cubic Measure. Liters Kiloliter or stere.. 1,000 1 cubic meter. Hectoliter. 100 1-10 of a cubic meter Dekaliter. 10 10 cubic decimeters. Liter 1 1 cubic decimeter. Deciliter. 1-10 of a cubic decimeter 1-10 Centiliter 10 cubic centimeters. 1-100 Milliliter. 1-1000 1 cubic centimeter. was pearls; the latter are weighed in carats 655, - (=3.1683 grains), which were originally , the Alexandrian ounce ( the twelfth , part of the mina of silver). Various larger pounds were early used for merchandise; in 1303 the "avoirdupois" was pound (7,000 grains) was in use. The of Troy pound standard made by Mr. Bird was in 1758 for the Weights and Measures Committee was legalized in 1824; in 1834 the standard was destroyed; the Mint Standards Commission replaced troy weight by avordupois, and the standard in pound is a mass of platinum weighing of 7,000 grains in vacuo, copies of which into are distributed as in the case of standards of length. The standard of capacity is the gallon, which was in 1824 ad- ), justed so as to contain 70,000 grains, or . 10 pounds avoirdupois of water at 62° 1527. F. and 30 inches bar. pressure; this gallon occupying 227.274 cubic inches, inthe stead of the old Winchester gallon of 2744 cubic inches. The French or metric 5,015 system of weights and measures is based on the decimal system. (See METRIC . SYSTEM.) The metric system was legalgold, ized in the United States on July 28, and 1866, when Congress enacted as follows: shall be recognized in the construction of contracts, in terms of the weights and measures now in use in weights and measures expressed therein in terms of the be used for computing, determining, and expressing and measures of the metric system. to the above: Equivalents in Denominations in Use. 6.2137 miles. 0.62137 mile, or 3,280 feet 10 inches. feet 1 inch. 328 393.7 inches 39.37 inches. 3.937 inches 0.3937 inch. 0.0394 inch. MEASURES OF SURFACE. Equivalents in Denominations in Use. 2.471 acres. 119.6 square yards. square inches. MEASURES OF CAPACITY. Equivalents in Denominations in Use. Liquid or Wine Dry Measure. Measure. 1,308 cubic yards.... 264.17 gallons. 2 bush. and 3.35 pecks 26.417 gallons. 9.08 quarts. 2.6417 gallons. 0.908 quart. 1.0567 quarts. 6.1022 cubic inches. 0.845 gill. 0.6102 cubic inch.... 0.338 fluid oz. 0.061 cubic inch... 0.27 fluid dram. Metric Denominations and Values. Equivalent in Denominations in Use Number of Weight of What Quantity of Avoirdupois Weight. Names Grains Water at Maximum Density Miller or tonneau. 1,000,000 1 cubic meter. Quintal.. 100,000 1 hectoliter. Myriagram.... 10,000 10 liters. Kilogram or kilo. 1,000 1 liter.. Hectogram. 100 1. deciliter. Dekagram. 10 10 cubic centimeters. Gram. 1 Decigram. 1-10 1-100 1-1000 Centigram. Milligram. 1 cubic centimeter. 1-10 of a cubic centimeter. 10 cubic millimeters. 1 cubic millimeter.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Curculio, a comprehensive name for numerous beetles with their grubs destructive of fruit and grain. Some weevils roll up the leaves of trees, depositing eggs in the roll, but the curculios or weevils dreaded by the fruit grower are beetles with long snouts, even twice the length of the body, with which they first puncture young fruit. Then, after depositing an egg in the hole, the snout is used again to push the egg to the bottom of the orifice. As the fruit grows, the egg hatches out into a grub and the grub grows with the fruit. Some kinds are content to cut a path out through the young fruit and drop to the ground. Here they form pockets and remain until they are ready to come up as beetles. The stung fruit may mature and usually does so, but it is gnarly. Other grubs cause the fruit to fall. They leave it for the ground or remain within for a time and come out beetles. The adage, "every rose has its thorn," may be changed to "every fruit has its weevil." Acorns, chestnuts, hazelnuts, rosehips, apples, pears, plums, apricots, cherries, strawberries, grapes, rice, sugarcane, corn, peas, pine cones, cotton bolls, bread, biscuit,--each has its peculiar weevil, a condition expressed by the popular term of "wormy." The article on SPRAYING gives some idea of the pains taken by fruitgrowers to spread poison for adult weevils, and to poison the hearts of the blossoms for the destruction of the grubs as they hatch. Another plan is that of catching the adult beetles at the season when they infest fruit trees to lay eggs. They may be shaken off on a large canvas and burned. The canvas may be stretched on a frame with a slit at one side for the admission of the trunk of the tree. The frame is carried on a sort of wheelbarrow readily wheeled from tree to tree. See Cotton Boll-Weevil